It turns out that everybody — not just health conscious enviros and animal welfare activists — is concerned about ingesting antibiotics in meat.

The anxiety over antibiotics in meat is even freaking out a bunch of rich money handlers, specifically a group of investment firms in the United Kingdom.

Who are these companies?

Aviva Investors, Strathclyde Pension Fund, and Coller Capital, all high-profile, big-name firms, recently penned a strong-worded letter to fast-food chains that are known for serving less-than-clean meat. The restaurants included in the mailing list were McDonalds, Domino’s, and Burger King — a group of British restaurant companies received the letter, too. “All told, the investment companies that signed the letter control more than a $1 trillion in assets,” Take Part reports.

While the letter was sent last month, The Guardian published the contents of the letter this past Sunday.

The Truth about Antibiotics in Meat

While the message about antibiotics in meat was strongly worded, it wasn’t unreasonable.

“We agree that antibiotics should be used for the treatment of sick animals,” the letter states. “[But] they should not be used to support irresponsible practices such as growth promotion or routine disease prevention of animals kept in closely confined and unsanitary conditions.”

And the investors point to experts who believe “the drugs’ use[ed] in farm animals is linked, via the food chain, to the spread of antibiotic-resistant infections in humans,” The Guardian reports. One such expert, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that antibiotic use in livestock production is contributing to the global threat of a “post-antibiotic era.”

Yikes…

“These large food companies are key ingredients in the portfolios of most of our pensions and savings,” Coller Capital’s Jeremy Coller says. “Thus it is a case of proper risk management to ask them to work out how they will meet this challenge.”

]]>Household Bleach Cleans TOO Well, Increasing Your Child’s Risk of These Illnesses [Study]http://www.organicauthority.com/cleaning-with-bleach-isnt-disinfecting-its-making-kids-sick-study-finds/
Wed, 22 Apr 2015 09:00:23 +0000http://www.organicauthority.com/?p=35278Cleaning with bleach isn’t anything new, parents have been doing it for decades. But today the disinfectant is also added to a host of cleaning products. Cleaning with bleach has become a mainstay with parents that want to kill every germ in the house. But more and more research is showing that our homes are so […]

Cleaning with bleach isn’t anything new, parents have been doing it for decades. But today the disinfectant is also added to a host of cleaning products. Cleaning with bleach has become a mainstay with parents that want to kill every germ in the house. But more and more research is showing that our homes are so clean that we’re making our kids sick.

A new report, published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine has found that parents who regularly clean with bleach actually have children that tend to get sicker. Researchers followed 9,000 kids ages 6-12 years old and found a higher number of infections in kids when their parents regularly used bleach in the home. In all, they found a 20 percent increase in influenza, 35 percent increase in tonsillitis, and an 18 percent increase in any kind of infection.

While bleach is, of course, a strong disinfectant, it kills so many germs that your immune system becomes compromised because it doesn’t learn to fight the infections that commonly occur. Not to mention that the study found that bleach also releases vapors that may harm your child’s lungs.

Parents who are concerned about this latest finding should consider a chemical-free disinfectant like white vinegar diluted with water. Consider washing down counters and other areas where germs may linger with warm soap and water and avoid antibacterial soaps which can contain antimicrobial agents like triclosan. Triclosan can also have a negative impact on your immune system and can lead to the formation of antibiotic resistant infections.

For tough stains where mold can form, in your bathtub for example, wipe the tub down with your white vinegar concoction and then come in with a scrub brush and baking soda. Or you can use this tough All-Natural Scouring Powder from Wellness Mama. Remember that a little elbow grease never hurt anyone.

And while you’re at it, get your kids outside. My mother-in-law has some great advice for parents. “Kids should eat a pound of dirt, it’s good for their immune systems.” I second that. When your immune system isn’t confronted with a host of bacteria then it doesn’t know how to fight them. In this study, one of the impacts was an increased rate of infection, but other research has shown that it can also increase the rate of allergies in kids.

“[T]he decreasing incidence of infections in western countries and more recently in developing countries is at the origin of the increasing incidence of both autoimmune and allergic diseases.” The increasing incidence of autoimmune disease includes some biggies like multiple sclerosis, inflammatory disease, allergies, and asthma. This is according to the Hygiene Hypothesis. That’s why kids that grow up on farms have shown less incidence of allergies than kids that live in the city. So there you have it, don’t be afraid to get dirty.

]]>High Levels of Deadly Bacteria Revealed in Nation's Pork Supplyhttp://www.organicauthority.com/blog/organic/hidden-high-levels-of-deadly-bacteria-revealed-in-nations-pork-supply/
Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:00:49 +0000http://www.organicauthority.com/blog/?p=10747Deadly strains of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus) are present in the nation’s meat supply, according to a new report published in the journal PLoS ONE titled, “MRSA in Conventional and Alternative Retail Pork Products.” A partnership between the University of Iowa College of Public Health and the Institute for Agriculture and […]

A partnership between the University of Iowa College of Public Health and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy conducted the largest U.S. survey of retail meat. The study looked at nearly 400 samples of various pork products collected throughout supermarkets in Iowa, Minnesota and New Jersey. Nearly 7 percent of the samples contained detectable levels of MRSA. According to lead study author Tara Smith, Ph.D., interim director of the UI Center for Emerging and Infectious Diseases and assistant professor of epidemiology, “This study shows that the meat we buy in our grocery stores has a higher prevalence of staph than we originally thought.”

The study made another surprising discovery: There was no notable difference in the levels of MRSA contamination between conventionally raised pork products and those claiming to be raised without antibiotics or other drugs. “We were surprised to see no significant difference in antibiotic-free and conventionally produced pork,” said Smith.

Some 185,000 cases of food poisoning are caused by MRSA in the U.S. each year, and the bacteria, which are extremely difficult to treat because of resistance to antibiotics, can lead to life-threatening infections.

The study researchers hope that the findings will help lead to recommendations for safer handling methods of all raw meat products, not just for the end consumer, but also in slaughtering and processing the animals, where much of the contamination is believed to occur.